Tim McKinney announces his bid for Orange County Commission

Tim McKinney officially threw his hat into the ring Thursday afternoon to compete for Orange County Commission District 5. 

The executive vice president of United Global Outreach told us he was planning on entering the race after McKinney and Commissioner Ted Edwards, who currently represents District 5, had a public spat regarding what to build on a recently foreclosed mobile home park in Bithlo. 

McKinney and his partners want to install anywhere from 20 to 43 two-story tiny homes on the almost five-acre lot, while Edwards has recently partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando to build a joint nine to 10 regular-sized homes on the same site where McKinney hoped to build what he called "Dignity Village." 

"The residents of Orange County, in particular District 5, are traumatized every day by the lack of public infrastructure in our community," McKinney told a crowd Thursday. "Roads, bridges, sidewalks, public transportation have been completely overlooked and unfortunately our commissioner experiences none of that because he never leaves his own neighborhood." 

Aside from Edwards, McKinney and Gregory Eisenberg, another candidate joined the race this week. East Orange County activist and East of the Econ founder Emily Bonilla says she waited to see if there would be a candidate that represented the people to challenge Edwards but seeing none, she announced she was joining the race this weekend.